XP support has been cut off by Microsoft (MS), and approximately 1/3 of Windows users are becoming increasingly vulnerable to internet predators: hackers/crackers. Predators include the US government with full support from Obama as Snowden showed us, as "hacked" computers are sold "into slavery," so-to-speak, as botnets, which are platforms from which internet attacks are launched. Millions of people are pushed "out into the cold," but governments seem to support Microsoft's negligence, perhaps to "stimulate" economies (that is to say collectively robbing and hurting us).

At first it looked as if the XP operating system
would be "orphaned," or abandoned, but in cruel twist, Microsoft will
still support the system --for millions of dollars. Britain and Holland
have made deals, but not for their people, only for government-owned
computers. For them it makes sense; divided down the per-computer cost
is below $5. Microsoft says in its "death of XP" screen that malware
"signatures" will be available "for a while," but says nothing more.

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The
sad irony is that loyal Windows users seem to truly love XP, and
consider it the only "true" Windows experience. They dislike newer
systems especially Windows 8 which seems to be adapted for tablets as if
the PC and laptop no longer exist! I am a life-long techie; I was
helping form the "social internet" as early as 1989 --I "feel" as if I
invented it. While I never personally liked Windows (or Microsoft,
preferring Unix-like workstations), I can feel the purist Windows users'
pain and I feel a tremendous personal urge to do something about
largely because so many good, intelligent people are being hurt: there
is no democracy, anywhere.

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Many will say these users should "go
with the program" and upgrade, and many others will say that Microsoft
is "evil" and that these users should be using free systems such as
Linux. Linux requires significant administrative skill. It is also
another for-profit "program" for corporations needing servers, such as
for the web, or for business logic; Google and the weather service use
Linux, for instance. The Linux community has been deceptively
describing it as a "people's system," probably to recruit volunteer
developers in its pre-corporate days.

Two solutions: legislation and a new, true "people's system"LEGISLATION
is what is needed to curb techno-corp greed. MS could be forced to
provide updates for the same "few dollars" per system that Britain and
Holland are paying.

A much better, more democratic, solution--
the system could be "given" to the people who have been "left out in the
cold." That is to say, that systems that are no longer supported, and
thus abandoned, can be "reverse engineered" so that users can work
together to provide support, which they can easily do because the
computer community is so "hack-oriented." Linux, for instance, is
considered so safe that specific security software is unnecessary
(though I would personally be less confident).

A legislative
solution may be helped by a particularly sticky situation that
corporations and governments have created for themselves; this is to say
that they no longer have a "moral qualification" for systems security.
By deliberately creating system vulnerabilities, that is to say being
"anti-security," they no longer have a right to complain about the
proliferation of system hacking, say, by the "anonymous" group. By
governments and corporations we would have to mean banks and the military: everybody's savings and security. This is an emergency if I ever saw one; government needs to act if it plans to remain in control.

Third (long-term) solutionMy
strong, decade-long, belief is that the L4 micro-kernel operating
system is the way to go. It is the successor of the core Unix system
(especially the Apple operating system), and is highly modular (being a
microkernel) so that components can be switched-out based on users'
needs --or vulnerability to predators. As it is, all operating systems
(except Linux) are hybridized microkernels (owing to microkernel
flexibility). A very, very major part (and headache) of computer
engineering is the "driver system," or the computers' ability to use
printers, mice, cameras, etc. In a micro-kernel system, driver
programming architectures can be switched-out, or even combined, to
allow access to all drivers, such as for MS, Apple, or others.

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Free L4 from telecomThe
sad part about L4 is that it is fully proprietary, the opposite of open
source (or purely-free). It was open in the early part of the 2000s,
but a group in Dresden took control of development using a deception as
Linux did, except it mislead programmers about its licensing implying
that because it was academic, it was free. L4 is in nearly every cell
phone as a "sub OS" to handle telecom-specific functions, but a fully-L4
smart phone is available for intelligence-agencies for (many
thousands). The initial L4 work was done, however, in the US by a Utah
university and is free, it is called OSKit, and can easily be brought up
to date, perhaps by the same programmers who worked for the Dresden
group.

It is hard not to get technical when discussing computersI
really mean this article to be viewed from democratic, bottom-up
activist perspective, and not the techie's (myopic) view. But, sadly,
it is nearly impossible to discuss computer politics w/o getting
technical. Rare, is the techie who gets "teary-eyed" over these issues,
such as I do.

Activism, however, is what is needed and it is needed now because of thepresent security emergencythat is beingforcedby
MS and governments. Unfortunately, programmers truly suck at
activism, so it is up to the average person to act. Average people need
to learn the issues (both political and technical) so that that they
can act, that is to say "get the tech headache."

The "uber" guru: Richard Stallman (RMS)RMS
is the guru of computing freedom, and a great source. He started the
"hack" movement as an outsider inside MIT during the Vietnam protesting
era, and founded both the GNU software movement and the Free S/W
Foundation. He seems (to me) to be highly-influenced by socialist
ideals.

I am a worker, photographer, and writer. I am now working on a counseling masters degree focusing on youth and community, neurology and medication, and underlying genetics.
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